You've probably heard it before but one solution is to do something you're passionate about. That keeps me going no matter what's happening.

I'm working on liberating people from something I've dealt with personally and it's a real blast. On my desktop I have written: "We're in the business of changing people's lives." (Heard it somewhere.)

Money/material/success as a motivator has never worked for me.

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Something else you can use to your advantage is to consider what would happen if you don't accomplish your goal(s). Are you willing to settle for less than you deserve?
Or is it time to get passionate about something and accomplish what's important to you?

"Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman

You've probably heard it before but one solution is to do something you're passionate about. That keeps me going no matter what's happening.

I'm working on liberating people from something I've dealt with personally and it's a real blast. On my desktop I have written: "We're in the business of changing people's lives." (Heard it somewhere.)

"Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman

1) Have a Monday - Friday (if that's your work week), log sheet with exactly which project part you will tackle that day.

2) Have a blueprint / mind map, outline or some main document for each project ready to grab for #1 as needed. And go over these during break times, off times, etc. to fine tune. You may be bored with projects themselves because they are out of date, not bringing in the ROI that you'd like. So tune them up on a regular basis.

3) Keep up with your niches and with running a business today. This will help you grow #1 and #2 in the right directions, and give you topics for content and interaction, online and off.

4) Get and stay fit, too, no easy task as you age. Your mind and body need to work together.

I think that is the most important thing to deal with for the beginners. I also thought a lot about this question, no matter that I have started to try something in Internet marketing just recently.

For me I understood that I need more than just one project, I cannot all the time think and do just around one topic, theme or niche you can call it as you want. So, I have decided that after I will see at least some results from that what I am doing right now, I will search for the next niche that I could be passioned about. I know that it is not good to take too many of projects at the beginning, but something have to be changed that I would not get bored about that what I am doing.

And, of course, as already was mentioned it is very important, that you like that what you are doing, in other case I think it will be very hard to get good results and keep on it for a long time!

Try to surround yourself in the things that you enjoy, this way it is more easier to motivate yourself, if you arent so fortunate in being able to be doing the things you enjoy at this time, then your motivation is very simple, you focus to do the things you dont enjoy so much so you then can move forward to a place where you then become ABLE to do the things that you enjoy.

A way to overcome this is having dozens of others projects lying around for pick when in the "bored" state. Work on those, then get back to the main one. Not sure if it's the right choice though.

For me that's a recipe for disaster. I never end up getting any single project done. I have more than enough to do on my main business. I have marketing steps that need to be done, I have accounting and book keeping to do, I have promotional materials that need to be made, I have clients I need to stay in touch with, I have jobs to finish, I have to archive files, I need to check emails. There are about a dozen things I can be doing. So when I get distracted on one particular part of my biz, I go and work on another part that seems more interesting at the time. Every step is still moving me forward. No clients? Learn about SEO. Hit the wall on SEO, design a new biz card. Finished that? Create a new video template. Constantly doing something that needs to be done. It's like fixing up a home, there is always something you can do on it.

Look, in order to motivate yourself you need to sit down and think about the reasons why you are doing what you're doing in the first place. Personally, I wish to succeed and acquire wealth because I will be able to provide myself and my family with things that will make our life easier. With each word that I type, every product or website that I create, that is in the back of my mind.

I decided to pick projects about subjects that I'm interested in; therefore, they're something I'd be involved in almost every day anyway, some way or another. But I also try to keep the project simple and something that I can have ready to go quickly, because if it's going to take too long or be complicated, I just tend to never get it started in the first place.

I have the same problem as you buddy,I'll be working on the computer and my mind wanders and I end watching videos on Youtube or listening to music.I now work about 6 hours a day and to prevent me from getting too bored I work 3 hours then have a proper break maybe up to 2 hours,then I finish off the other 3 hours.

This is a very important question for everyone who is working towards attaining life goals, Everything around us can turn out to be a distraction for us against attaining our goals only when we allow it. For me personally i motivate myself by visualising and focusing on the benefits it will give me to get the project done; this keeps my interest hot through out the project.

How do you guys motivate yourselves not to lose interest in current projects?

I found that my attention span is relatively short and I sort of lose interest a lot...

Hey TheOverall,

Here's a few things you could think about:

Focus
When wishing to get motivated about an activity it can be interesting to notice the difference between how you feel about the beginning, middle or end of the task.

For example, let's take the idea of "going to the gym"... you could think about the effort it takes to get to the gym (the beginning), or the activity of being at the gym (the middle) or the physical sensations having been to the gym (the end). Each focus offers a different experience, which one is the most motivating for you? ...find it for that specific activity and stick to that focus.

(as a quick aside, a lot of folk who procrastinate don't get around to thinking about the "end" and the associated benefits)

Accidental anchor
In NLP there's this thing called 'anchoring', where a stimulus of some kind can be associated with an emotion. A great example is that moment when a song comes on the radio and instantly you remember a time and place and the associated emotions. In other words the song triggered the feelings. Anchors can be deliberately created or can be natural or even accidentally created.

Your comment (quoted below) reminded me of a common experience I find when working with business owners and execs where a negative anchor is accidentally created...

Originally Posted by TheOverall

A way to overcome this is having dozens of others projects lying around for pick when in the "bored" state. Work on those, then get back to the main one. Not sure if it's the right choice though.

For example, let's imagine a businessperson has a crap day and decides to alleviate some of the bad feelings by engaging in a certain activity, let's call that activity "X". Another day the same thing happens, he feels crap and again he calls upon that same activity "X"... and he does it again ...and again.

All the while an association is being created between that crap feeling and activity "X", in a way it's like X = crap feeling.

Later, (and this time not because he wants to alleviate any crap feelings) he decides to do "X" ...but strangely now can't get motivated to do "X" ...it just doesn't feel as good as it used to. In fact, he doesn't want to do "X" at all.

...because X = crap feeling.

So if you now think about what you describe in the quote above... :rolleyes:

Flow (part 1)
I mentioned this briefly in another thread the other day. We each have a "groove", a flow to our day. This groove is personal to us... sometimes we feel good, sometimes we feel tired. The key is to know and work with your groove. If you naturally feel good at say 10am to 12noon, work then... if on a regular basis you have a downer around 4pm, don't work at that time or do something that does not require you to be motivated.

Flow (part 2)
Within your groove you will also have mini-cycles (technical term: ultradian rhythm) which are all about a period of time in which you can maintain a good working state. Typically this breaks down to within every hour you work for 45mins and have a break for 15mins (like I said this is typical, but this can be different for different people, in the main 45/15 is a good rule of thumb).

The result of working like this is the 45mins becomes a very effective 45 mins with a lot of work being done.

...Most folk don't do this and burn through the 'break' time ...and effectiveness suffers.

Losing focus is something we all suffer from. It's human nature right?? I often find the best way to keep interested in something that isnt particularly interesting is plan out what you are going to do before hand and to break up what you are doing with taks that you find abit more enjoyable!

I've had the most success staying the course by inviting others to join me in a co-authored project/product and build a community around that. The community provides ongoing feedback and takes the guess work out what product to create.

And these steps tie in with getting people to pay for the creation of the products before they are created. Also these steps are great in inspiring star talent, contributions and endorsements. *This also generates instant credibility to the media and your audience even if the product isn't even created yet!

Create a co-authored project to launch your expertise/ career

Be inspired by someone else’s big up upcoming media or worldly event

Research your topic’s audience

Choose a group product you want to create with others

Commit to the group product creation and product launch dates around that big event

Promote your event (a workshop or performance you're filming or the book release party date)

Create a community and product around the event that you can monetize monthly

Offer product creation and promotion tools to your community to keep the profits rolling

Always make sure that you are still enjoying what you are currently doing. Sometimes there are down moments but if you know that you have a clear plan and you want to succeed then I would just think the future and the success that I will get when I'm there. Most important, always have faith and acknowledge God above.

here is a quote from another similar post i posted on... hope it helps

Originally Posted by Mr Swaggs

It's quite simple.

first of all you have to eliminate all of your choices down to 1.
look at it like this, if you were driving down the highway and you saw sears, walmart, and target. All three stores had very big signs that said (t-shirts 50% off).

That would confuse the hell out of you because you wouldn't know which route to take...so you would PROCRASTINATE and you would probably end up not picking any store because you couldn't make your mind up.

but if there was only one store then your answer is right there, case freakin closed..

second you have to focus on whats important, and work around that.
lets look at our previous example again. lets say each store held up different signs.

Walmart-t shirts 50% off

sears- t shirts 10% off

target- t shirts 40% off

now the obvious choice would be to go with the store that gives you the most money (and although there are more variables for a real life situation surrounding this example) for the sake of ease we are gonna say walmart is the better choice.

ok the point is, can you see how you were able to make a much clearer decision because you were able to take whats important (which in this case the amount of the discount) and formulate a "QUICK" decison.

Thirdly you must think about the "WHY" ...
This is one of the most important steps towards murdering procrastination...im serious if you conquer this step alone you should be able beat the dog s**t out of procrastination.

The why basically means what will you gain from completing the task that you're procrastinating about.

If the benefit you'll gain is worth it you will subconsciously become motivated to do what you have to do to get the s**t done, plain and simple.

i bet you would procrastinate if i told you i would give you 1 million dollars everytime you completed the task you're procrastinating on right now.

so take some time and think about the benefits you'll gain from doing the task. Hell write it down if you have to.. you just need to know whats in it for you!

you can find out alot more in the cheap little WSO im offering below in my sig.

It starts with Integrity. That ensures correct Vision, from which come the only effective goals. If these are in focus and in proper organization, the motivation does come... even if it takes and hour or two to wake up in the morning.

I procrastinate when I have too many thoughts running through my head (Don't we all). I have 24 minutes of quite time in the morning (1 minute for each hour of the day) to quiet my mind. In this overstimulated society of instant this and instant that learning the art of stillness is critical.

I know it's been a while since I posted in it, but here is some progress I've made so far (over half a year after!)

- I started to exercise regularly

This helps me meditate. be it even doing normal push ups or a very short jog (1 mile) -- it helps you relax, gets the blood flowing and makes you think more clearly on what's important.

- I decided not to push projects that don't take off

What I did after starting this thread is plant several "seeds" into different projects. Saw which seeds grew, and focused on those.

I completely cut off the projects that didn't work. The one's that I was emotionally committed to, but spent way too much time on with no return. I cut them off. Plain and simple.

- I don't do stuff that I don't like

Yes, I am sort of good with php & mysql, but it frustrates me every time to work in it. So I don't. Find likeminded people to partner up with, and share the workload, or plain outsource it.

- Listen to music

It really helps. Get Spotify or last.fm or a similar service. Find your favorite songs from your youth, make an awesome album. Before going to sleep, dive into these albums and just enjoy. What I found is that sometimes at 11pm when I do this, I get a crazy idea and just do it. Sometimes it works out really well

- Planning sucks

Contrary to what most people posted in this thread, I don't do planning. I don't do strategies. What I do is see opportunities and take them.

This way I have made over $50k already with a partner in the last couple of months. We both found something that took off, and are now dynamically scaling it upwards.

I use sticky notes and place them everywhere around my office. I put specific goals that I want to achieve, so everytime i see a sticky note it keeps me motivated and inspired and focused on what is important that actually brings money in. It helps me focus on NOT browsing the web and actually "working"

Hey... I had the same problem when i just started Internet Marketing a few years ago. I would have several projects on which I concentrated on to which none would come to fruition. This would continue for about 5 months. My head was spinning.

I realized exactly what the problem was and swore to myself to take things slow and one at a time.
I motivated myself by making a promise that I will stick to one project at a time and let it evolve to see whether or not it was good for me.

If you continue this trend you are constantly going to keep failing and losing interest and jumping on a new product each week.

Give yourself time and patience, you will get there

Yury

Originally Posted by TheOverall

How do you guys motivate yourselves not to lose interest in current projects?

I found that my attention span is relatively short and I sort of lose interest a lot.

A way to overcome this is having dozens of others projects lying around for pick when in the "bored" state. Work on those, then get back to the main one. Not sure if it's the right choice though.

I just recently started IM and was (and slightly am) still having the same problems. I had to learn rather quickly to: 1.) Take breaks. 2.) Only read, learn and study from things that make sense. If I am surfing for something and its not what I was looking for- I don't waste my time on it, so 3.) Don't waste time reading stuff that isn't giving you answers you need. Its a great way to get overwhelmed. 4.) Act instead of just read . and 5.) have goals.

Establish goals. and Do not stop until you reach your gola. Make it small..

Like finish project 1. Then get It done and take a break.

Figure out what you liken doing and then outsource the rest or hire an employee to handle the things you do not like, but must complete.

You will find that training another person on how you want it done, will really push you to decide what you want to accomplish. This way all you should have to do is generate new plans and than see them through execution.

You goal is to systematically complete projects and make more income or time freedom depending on your goal.

You should not lose your interest in your keen project, if you are loosing your interest you should say I can do this, and just relax for some time, then u will get motivated and u wont lose your interest...

What I'm currently finding to be really useful is putting "reminders" in my workspace. For example, I've got a couple Sticky notes on the bottom of my monitor, basically reminding me to keep things simple.

Another thing I'm going to do is create a visual aid for why I'm doing this. A motivational collage, if you will.

What might assist you is to figure out what representational system you prefer. That is to say... are you visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or auditory digital. I can't post actual links but if you search "primary rep system test" in Google, there's a good test appearing third from the top. Take it and see where your scores are.

If you find yourself visual, create a visual aid.

If you find yourself auditory, record a motivational message. I love self-hypnosis for this.

Kinaesthetic is a bit trickier. If you find this one is your primary, I'd go for the next best thing.

If you find yourself auditory digital, write a motivational message and keep it in a spot you can see it.

The idea with is that these aids act as an anchor. You created them in a higher state of mind, when you really motivated to achieve this. When you're in a lower state of mind, those anchors can be really useful.

I was never a "goal" setting person. Finally tried it wrote down all my goals on a journal and look at it everyday. Now I find myself actually getting things done that I planned on. Anyone that needs motivation just try it. Right now go right down your goals on piece of paper don't use an excuse like I'm tired I'll do it tomorrow do it now!

I was never a "goal" setting person. Finally tried it wrote down all my goals on a journal and look at it everyday. Now I find myself actually getting things done that I planned on. Anyone that needs motivation just try it. Right now go right down your goals on piece of paper don't use an excuse like I'm tired I'll do it tomorrow do it now!

it is god to set goals otherwise your life is aimless and you are doing just about what you did a year ago without making progress .Setting a goal to achieve just a little higher than what you would normally achieve which makes you happy because you are taking steps to see progress

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